KEENE, NH – The Hundred Nights homeless shelter, currently housed on Lamson Street in Keene is gearing up to move to their newly constructed facility on Water Street, with just a few things left to check off.
In an interview with WKBK Wednesday afternoon, Executive Director Mindy Cambiar said there’s just a short list of things left to complete at the facility and construction is largely finished, but they don’t have a firm move-in date yet.
Cambiar said they are planning to move the bulk of their furniture and equipment over to the Water Street facility the weekend of July 22nd and 23rd, and they could use some volunteers to help out with that.
“If anybody is able to help by moving boxes, or taking beds apart, or loading up a truck that you might have, we would totally appreciate that.”
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Hundred Nights at 603-352-1481.
What’s holding up the process is a signature on a grant agreement from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, that would allow Senator Jeanne Shaheen to provide a $250,000 grant to put towards furnishing the new facility.
The funding will be used to reimburse Hundred Nights for the furniture that they order, however Cambiar said they can’t begin ordering until the agreement is signed, or they won’t get reimbursed.
The shelter does have some furniture and other equipment, but the new facility will double their current capacity, so they need a few more things.
“We probably have half of the furniture in there, which came from previous grants,” Cambiar said. “For example, there’s no dishes, there’s no pots and pans, we’re missing half the beds, office furniture, things like that.”
A grand opening event is in the works, as Cambiar says they want to start things off on the right foot with their new neighbors.
“We want to make sure that all of our neighbors are going to be comfortable with us being there,” Cambiar said. “We’re hoping to do an open house with a ribbon cutting within the next month … and invite people, well the entire community in, but especially our new neighborhood.”
There’s no set date for that event just yet, but Cambiar says she’s hoping it will be sometime near the beginning of August.
On top of the move, Hundred Night’s is also looking to launch its new signature annual fundraiser, “The Amazing Race Fundraiser” this September.
“Amazing Race is based on the TV show where people travel around the world, of course they’ll be traveling around Keene,” Cambiar said. “We’re going to have somewhere between 15 and 20 challenge points where people will do either a trivia contest … or any number of fun things.”
The fundraiser is set for September 9th beginning at 1 pm at Keene Ice. For more information visit Hundred Nights’ website.